You are My Piece of Foreign Sky
by audi katia
Summary: "I have lived ten, fifty, a hundred lifetimes. But the only ones that mattered are the ones that had you." Artemis/Wally
1. Never Got Together AU

**Summary**: Inspired by the prompt, "I have lived ten, fifty, a hundred lifetimes. But the only ones that mattered are the ones that had you." This features many alternate universes where Wally and Artemis have met and fallen in love, met and never got together, and even barely met at all.

**Notes**: This was written for the stunning and beautiful delirious-daydreamer for the 2013 Holiday Exchange. She has always been a sweetheart to me and I wanted to give her the best holiday gift I could think of. I tried to cater the AUs to her personal taste, but I will expand from that now that I am posting this separately.

Also, the title comes from Anne Campbell's poem, _You are the trip I did not take_.

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_Alternate universe in which Wally and Artemis never get together after their New Year's kiss._

It's ten minutes to midnight and Wally would be lying if he said he hadn't been spending the evening trying to get to exactly where he was at this moment.

"Hey," he starts casually as he slides up beside Artemis, hands shoved in his pockets and his fingers crossed.

She's standing off by herself, leaning against in the wall in all her usual, cool indifference. There's a glass of something dark and suspicious in her hands, something she swirls around absently in the tumbler before swigging it all down in a single gulp and turning her steely eyes to Wally.

"Give it a rest, West. I watched you circling," she informs him, voice hoarse as she winces down her alcohol.

Ears burning madly, he wonders why he thought it was wise to sneak up on a hero in a room full of heroes. Really, every single person in the whole Watchtower probably watched him maneuver his way over to her. He dreads to know what Dick'll have to say about it later and frowns to himself.

She smirks at his reaction and holds out her now-empty glass idly. He wants to refuse to take it, to let her hold it, but his hand works against his thoughts and he finds himself taking it from her politely.

"Can't blame a guy for trying," he shrugs, trying to play off his slight desperation to talk to her with nonchalance.

"Actually, yes, I can," she retorts with a single arched eyebrow. "I'm with Cameron, remember?"

As if he could forget.

"Well, I didn't see him here," Wally responds, making a big show of standing on his tiptoes to look around the Watchtower. Unless Icicle Jr. is hiding out behind Conner's broad shoulders over on the east end, he's not here. And honestly, if he wasn't with Artemis or with Conner, he'd be nowhere in sight.

Artemis sighs, stuck in this moment and in this conversation. She shuffles her boots on the floor, leaving scuff marks that Wally knows Red Tornado will buff out with a strangely sentient beep of exasperation tomorrow morning.

"Somehow I thought that might not be the wisest of decisions," she allows, a one-shouldered shrug that lets her angle her body away from Wally. Even as she pulls away, he can catch a whiff of her drink left over on her bated breath.

"So you admit he can't be trusted."

Wally catches her in the slip up, a tiny crack in her facade and she freezes. Her jaw sets and he can practically hear the click in her mind as she focuses her steel eyes on him, laser-like and precision to kill.

"I still don't know why you're with him," he blurts out, anything to avert her stare.

"He's not all bad," Artemis says, snappish to defend her absent boyfriend.

Wally purses his lips, but doesn't say anything more. He knows that's just her way of saying she's not all good.

He doesn't know why they always end up here. Well, he does know. It's just something they never talk about, a bad subject gone sour after being swept under the rug for so long.

They hold their stares for an indeterminate amount of time and Wally can actually feel his eyes start to water with the need to close themselves away from her. But it's Artemis who looks away before he can even move, her eyes cast down at floor and the fight gone from her shoulders as she slumps back against the wall.

"Look, I'm sorry," Wally grits out through strained teeth, "I didn't come over here to fight."

"But isn't that what we always do?" she shoots back, words tight and precise and exactly like every arrow she always shoots.

"Not always," he reminds her. She has to know what he's referring to. It's been five years to the day and they're standing right here.

"Wally," she strains his name out into broken syllables and he can hear the alcohol in each letter. He knows she remembers as well as he does.

"Since we're here," he continues, frantic to keep her attention like he hasn't been since they were sixteen and idiots. He tightens his grip on her glass, since forgotten in his hand, "Wanna be my New Year's kiss?"

She stares at him, a little tipsy and a little offended that he even suggested such a thing. He had meant for all of this to go down a little smoother, with a little more grace, but he's never been good at holding on to anything around Artemis. He's never been all that good at holding on Artemis, either.

"I'm not going to kiss you at midnight," she swears.

"You did before."

She gives him a look, something twisted with annoyance and frustration and that signature Artemis-glare that, even five years later, only he has ever been able to inspire in her. Her mouth, thick and soft and an imprint he remembers on his own lips, opens and shuts with just enough slack around her jaw to make the bottom of Wally's stomach fall to his knees.

Instead of giving him an answer, she just snaps her teeth together, shiny and hard behind those soft lips, and walks away from him just as the countdown starts.

She disappears into the throng of heroes beside them, lost in Zatanna's arms and Barbara's embrace, and he holds her glass close to his chest.

The numbers dwindle to zero and as everyone cheers for the new year around him, Wally presses her tumbler to his lips, catching the last drops of her drink and the faint traces of her taste on the glass.

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	2. Tollbooth AU

**Notes**: I don't even care, I love this one so much. I'm so proud of this one.

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_Alternate universe in which Wally works at a toll booth and finds himself falling in love with the owner of a green sedan._

He remembers the first time he saw her. He's not proud to admit that he dropped her seventy-five cents change in the space between his toll booth and her little green sedan, but he figures he handled the situation pretty well considering seeing her eyes was like a punch to the stomach.

She had laughed at him and rolled her stormy eyes and told him, "Nice job, spazz." But then she smiled just enough for him to see a glimpse of teeth and gum under the stretch of her lips and he could feel the floor of his booth disappear below him.

There are few things that get him through the day quite like the flop in his stomach when he sees her green sedan a few miles away from his booth, cruising down the highway in the left lane. And there are few things more disappointing than when she drives off, and all he can see is a bumper sticker that reads, "I brake for archers" and an inexplicable stuffed Cheshire cat near the rear window.

He always wants to ask her about the origins of the cat or if she's an archer herself, but there are very few chances to ask such a thing between collecting money and waving goodbye.

She shows up every weekday morning between 7:24 and 7:32. There have been seven such occasions when she's flown into his lane, slamming on her brakes last second and swearing like a sailor. She shoves her money at him distractedly, but she says hello to him every single time, invariably.

One cold day last winter she showed up at his stand with a greenie beanie on her head. He had commented on it, told her it was cute and she had rolled her eyes again. But she wore that beanie every single day for the whole winter. He thinks he could make a religion out of that beanie.

He's yanked out of his thoughts of babies in beanies when she pulls up at 7:26, hands scrounging around in the space next to her seat for the spare change she needs.

"Here," she tells him without any sort of preface as she drops the money into his outstretched and waiting palm. But she smiles in her usual way, all lips and teeth and curving cheeks, before driving off. He's left standing there, staring at the arrow on her bumper sticker and thinking about how the tips of her fingers had brushed against his hand, leaving tiny trails of fire in their wake.

Wally sighs and hopes, not for the first time, that she never gets an EZ pass.

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	3. Anastasia AU

**Notes**: ANASTASIA AU. Yes, this is an AU from the Anastasia animated movie (animated CLASSIC, if you ask me) from 1997. Look, this was a necessary fic to write. I needed it for my soul.

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_Alternate universe in which Artemis, a girl with no family and no memory of her past, is trained by con artists Wally and Dick to pass as the Dowager Lance's long lost daughter in 1920's Europe, a ruse that may hold more truth than they know._

Dick moves his white queen triumphantly on the chess board, arms crossed as he settles in his seat and grins cockily at Wally sitting across from him. Artemis's cat, Jade, peers interestedly at the board and Dick guides her away from biting at one of the pawns.

Wally gives him a look of tired aggravation and stares intensely at the board, trying to plan his next move.

Confident in his inevitable win, Dick leans back in his chair and shuts his eyes, allowing himself a moment to listen to the ocean lapping against the sides of the ship and the birds calling out to each other as they fly over the deck.

The sound of footsteps calls him from his reverie and he opens his eyes to see Artemis peering shyly at him, hands wrung up in the long skirt of her new evergreen dress.

"Beautiful!" he announces, just as Wally makes a move on the board. "Absolutely marvelous!"

Wally looks proud of his movement until he realizes Dick's attentions are elsewhere. Dick sees out of the corner of his eye, Wally's stuttering surprise as he takes in Artemis's appearance. He nudges Jade off of his lap and she jumps gracefully to the deck. She moves between Artemis's legs, arching her back and flicking her tail, as Dick moves closer to her.

Artemis herself responds by tensing up, hands raising at her sides defensively. Her jaw sets and Dick prays to any god listening that Wally not screw up this moment.

Wally's mouth opens and closes, but his eyes remain wide and unblinking as he stares at her. Perturbed by his reaction but not all the same upset, Artemis passes by him to approach Dick.

"It's really okay?" she asks, hesitant in a way she isn't usually.

Dick takes her hand, spinning her so that the voluminous skirt swirls around her feet. He can see her boots as she clumsily spins and makes a mental note to get her shoes befitting her status as a princess.

"You look the part of the duchess you truly are," he promises, smiling kindly at her over his glasses. "But," he continues in a more efficient tone, "it is not enough to look like a duchess."

With Artemis's hand in his own, he turns to find Wally still fumbling to regain his senses. Dick takes a few steps towards Wally and catches his friend by the crook of his arm. He arranges it so Artemis's hand passes into Wally's and Dick takes a few steps back.

"Now it's time for you to dance like one."

The two spare a moment to look at him, but he waves them on and leans over to gather Jade into his arms to keep her away from their feet.

There is a flurry of movement as Wally awkwardly places their hands so they are properly arranged. Dick counts quietly, keeping them in time as Wally starts to lead. Artemis, quick as ever to learn, counters his lead with her own assertions and they move leadenly on the deck.

"No," Dick shakes his head, stroking Jade mindlessly. "Artemis, you don't lead. Let Wally lead."

Her lips purse for a moment, but she otherwise nods and leans back into Wally. This time she moves her hand just enough to weave their fingers together and it's such a subtle movement, but it's as though everything falls into place from that one adjustment.

Dick counts quietly, one two three, to keep them in time as Wally guides Artemis in small circles around the deck.

"This might be one of those things that sounds better in my head," Wally starts, his voice barely loud enough for Artemis to hear, much less Dick. "But, uh, that dress looks really beautiful on you."

Artemis gives him a look, her head angling away to glare at him threateningly.

"I mean, it was nice on the hanger," Wally quickly amends, "but it looks even better on you." He nearly trips over his own feet, but turns the fumble into a wider circle as he spins her. He smiles sheepishly as the fabric sways around her ankles. "You should wear it."

"I am wearing it," Artemis corrects him. Dick can see a roll of her eyes that does not quite match the growing fondness in her voice. She moves her hand from his shoulder to his neck and the color rises in his face as he coughs embarrassedly.

"Right, of course," he murmurs, tone softer as he catches her steady gaze. "I'm just trying to give you a, uh..."

"Compliment?" Artemis finishes after a few seconds of silence, prompting him with more gentleness than Dick had seen her show him previously.

"Yes," he agrees, one corner of his mouth raising in dopey happiness.

Dick lets his quiet counting cease as the two continue to move over the deck, half graceful half unsure. They move slightly away from him, eyes only on each other, and Dick hums thoughtfully as he scratches behind Jade's ear.

"She's radiant and confident and born to take this chance," he confides in the cat, who purrs in response. "I taught her well, I planned it all."

In a burst of bravado Dick had not anticipated, Wally spins Artemis away from him. This time she spins with grace, coming back to Wally's side in moments, their hands falling in place seamlessly.

"I just forgot romance," he confesses to Jade, wondering how he could have done this. He looks down at the cat's wide, unblinking green eyes that seem to stare up at him as though to say, "How will we get through this?"

"I'm feeling a little dizzy," he hears Artemis announce, her sotto voice sweet without her usual edge.

"Kind of lightheaded?" Wally asks, slowing their movements until they stand still, hands still clasped. "Me too. Probably from spinning. Maybe we should stop."

"We have stopped," she corrects again. Though, this time there is no roll of her eyes, no barely concealed amusement at his mistake.

Neither make any movement to break away, and Dick watches them take in how the other looks in their arms, the sunset washed over them in brilliant golden hues.

"Artemis, I..." Wally whispers, stepping closer to her than the waltz calls for.

"Yes?" Artemis responds, leaning in closer. Dick can see the tips of her fingers brushing against the red curls at the nape of Wally's neck.

"I..." Wally says, eyes shutting momentarily at her touch.

"Yes?" she whispers, leaning in closer to close the vanishing gap between them.

Dick watches with bated breath, unsure of what he wants to happen in the next few moments, but in his moment of tense observation, hugs Jade too closely to his chest. The cat meows loudly and leaps from his arms, landing near Artemis's feet and immediately winding between her and Wally.

With the spell broken, Wally straightens himself up and pulls his hand from hers. His hand on her waist raises from her side to land on her shoulder in two quick pats.

"You're doing fine," he reassures her, face flushed and eyes avoiding hers.

Disappointment is clear on her face, but Artemis manages a smile, small and graceful and worthy of a princess. "Thank you, Wally."

He nods and turns to leave, presumably to his quarters, when Artemis calls him back.

"And Wally?" She waits until he's facing her to finish her statement, quickly as though she'll lose her nerve otherwise. "It sounded fine out loud."

Wally smiles at her, and looks for a moment like he might walk back into her arms, but changes his mind at the last moment and walks down to his quarters.

Artemis watches him leave and stands there in her dress, palms smoothing over the unfamiliar fabric, until she turns to leave in the opposite direction.

Finally the deck is devoid of dancers and emotionally displaces and Dick finds himself alone with the cat. He exchanges a glance with Jade and sighs.

"I never should have let them dance."

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	4. High School AU

**Notes**: In a series of AUs, there are certain staples that are bound to show up. A high school AU is one of them. Also, sorry I haven't posted in a few days. New Years sorta got away from me. But, happy New Year, everyone! Let's hope this year is the best one yet. :)

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_Alternate universe where Artemis and Wally attend the same high school where Artemis is on the archery team and Wally runs track._

If Artemis is surprised to see Wally leaning against the trunk of his car in the nearly empty parking lot, she doesn't show it.

Instead she kicks a pebble over the asphalt at him, catching his attention as it bounces against his skinny leg. He looks up from his Gameboy expectantly, giving her his widest and most innocent smile.

"Aren't you always bragging about how you get to go home earlier than me?" she asks him as she walks through an empty parking space, hoisting her quiver up a little higher on her shoulder. She had seen the track team leave the field nearly forty-five minutes ago. Not that she had been paying attention to what Wally was up to. She just happened to notice when she no longer had moving targets to aim for.

"Yeah, of course," he nods in agreement. "I figure I'll brag the whole way driving you home about how I just spent the last half hour playing Pokemon while you put away your archery equipment."

He holds the Gameboy up as some sort of bragging rights and gives her a wicked grin.

Artemis's steps trail off as she steps closer to him, suddenly aware of how tired her legs are and how her arms feel like jelly. Couch Queen had really pushed them to their limits this afternoon and she had risen to his challenge with a little too much vigor, as usual. She had been fine with the idea of walking home just five minutes ago, but now his stupid beat up car is starting to look like a golden beacon.

Something in expression must have betrayed her thoughts because Wally gives her the strangest look.

"Uh, you're not going to be mushy and thank me, are you?" he asks slowly, face scrunched up and each word sounding as though it caused him physical pain.

Artemis gives a little snort of derision and her bangs flutter against her still-sweaty forehead.

"Please," she says, walking past him blithely as she moves to the passenger's side of his car. "I'm going to roll my eyes and make fun of the fact that you think playing Pokémon at your age is something to brag about."

She jiggles the door handle violently until he gets the hint, grinning madly as he walks over to the driver's side and unlocks the doors.

She pulls her door open with a flourish, tossing her backpack onto the floor and shrugging at Wally where her eyes catch his over the hood of his car.

"Anything less would ruin the sanctity of our animosity," she explains.

She doesn't wait for him to say anything else before clambering into his car, quickly turning on the radio and ignoring the way his grin makes her feel.

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	5. Ghost AU

**Notes**: Okay, this is another one I really love and am definitely toying around with the idea of expanding it. This one was a particularly hard one to write because I wanted to just keep going and going, fleshing out everything, but I had to keep it to a basic drabble. Maybe I'll flesh it out when I have a bit more time.

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_Alternate universe in which Artemis is a ghost living in the house that the Wests just moved into._

Artemis doesn't know what keeps her here. She just knows she hasn't left the house in a very long time.

She doesn't know why the pull is strongest in the upstairs bedroom with the old sycamore tree just outside the window, but she knows that when she travels through the house, she feels drawn back to the room. She guesses this was her bedroom, back in another life. Sometimes, when there's a stretch between families in the house and the entire room is blank, she can faintly see two beds in the room, neither ever made up. Broken blinds on the window, a single poster on the wall. She remembers two hairbrushes on the dresser and a baseball cap perched on the mirror just out of her reach.

There are even moments in her long stretches of loneliness in the house that she can picture the sharp grin of the girl in the second bed. But then Artemis remembers flashes of light and a car horn and a scream, and she doesn't want to remember anything more.

She's not sure how long she's been here, but she's known her room when it was a den with a huge fishtank, a computer room with acrobat posters, a boy's bedroom with plenty of stuffed animals, and a teenage girl's room with poster after poster featuring movies and television shows.

There was a nursery in her room once. That one hurt the most. She doesn't know why.

But the nursery is long gone, and now she watches the movers bring in new boxes. She drifts through them, peering into them to find model airplanes and dinosaurs and chemistry tubes. There's no television though, which disappoints her. She likes watching what the families in her house like to watch, it helps keep her up to date with the world. But the pull from her room is too strong for her sometimes and it's hard to stay downstairs for long.

But this new occupant in her room likes science enough that he has a bookcase full of books, each one a new topic, from the Big Bang to organic chemistry to forensics. She reads them, hands corporeal enough to turn the pages, and finds herself as interested in the little handwritten notes written in the margins as she is with the actual text.

Some of the notes are thoughtful and provoking, comments on experiments and questions for further study. Some of the notes are just awful science puns. She laughs a little though because no one can hear her and she feels most alive when she laughs.

When the family finally moves in, she waits, hidden in plain sight in the middle of the bedroom. A redheaded boy dashes in quickly, freckled hands a blur as he sorts through all his belongings. He pauses for one moment to see all his science texts already sorted into his bookcase, and Artemis finds herself holding a breath she doesn't need as he glances over the organization. And when he shrugs, content with order of the books, she breathes out and watches with renewed comfort as he moves about the room.

He unpacks a radio first and listens to music Artemis has never heard but likes immediately. She watches idly as he hurries in his room, shoving furniture around and putting his dinosaurs on the top shelf above his desk, the surest sign of their importance to him. He even sets up a turtle tank and leaves from his room momentarily to collect a tiny turtle with a shell Artemis can see patterns in.

She frowns at the pornography he hides under his mattress, but smiles when he dances clumsily to the songs still playing on the radio. He doesn't make his bed and Artemis can feel a surge of familiarity that feels comfortable in this room, not painful like it usually does.

And that feeling right there is what she thinks of when she sees the dinosaurs come tumbling down from their spot on the shelf.

Artemis doesn't have much, but she does have her own little rule that she leaves everyone alone. She lets them live their lives while she stays, living quietly in the house she can't leave, in the room she lingers in.

But she thinks instead of the tug in her chest when he doesn't make the bed and the jokes she laughed at in his textbooks and the gentle way he held his turtle. All of this races through her brain as fast as he had appeared in the room and she rushes to block the dinosaurs. She drifts through the boxes on the floor, arms made momentarily corporeal as she blocks the dinosaurs from falling on the turtle.

They fall with a clutter on the carpet, none the worse for wear except for a T-Rex with a single broken arm.

And if the boy thinks it's at all strange that the dinosaurs fell diagonally, he shows none of that suspicion on his face. Instead, he rushes to his turtle, quick to move the tank to safety on the nightstand by his unmade bed.

Prompted by the noise, a woman with softly curled hair and eyes as green as her son's appears in the door.

"What happened?" she exclaims, glancing around the room and quickly lowering the volume of the music. Artemis frowns a little. She had liked that song.

"The models almost fell on Velocity," the teenager explains, gesturing to the pile of dinosaurs on the floor.

The woman places a hand over her chest and lets out a sigh of relief before smiling happily at her son.

"You must have a guardian angel," she tells him, eyes twinkling.

The boy gives an enormous sigh complete with a roll of his eyes, but he still smiles happily at his mother and the subject quickly changes to questions about dinner, Velocity's rescue soon forgotten.

But Artemis stands in the middle of her room, with a smile on her lips she feels when she brings her hand to her mouth.

Guardian angel. She likes the sound of that.

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	6. Alice in Wonderland AU

**Notes**: Another staple in the Young Justice/Artemis fandom. Still, it was a lot of fun to write. :) I'm just worried it sounds too British and not enough like the Young Justice voices.

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_Alternate Universe in which Artemis falls asleep under the boring tutelage of her elder sister and wakes up to find herself in a magical Wonderland full of talking flowers and brooding white rabbits. On a spiraling journey to explore this world, Artemis learns from the Cheshire Cat of the peculiar characters she has yet to meet._

Perhaps earlier in the day, Artemis would have been surprised to see a table set for tea in the middle of the forest. But the day has been very long and she's fairly certain she's lived several lifetimes in the day and maybe one of those lifetimes includes a world where such tables are set arbitrarily.

The doilies beneath the hodgepodge of tea cups and kettles seems to beckon to her and she only sits down for a moment before she hears a flurry of excitement under what she assumed were dirty dishes at the end of the table.

"No room, no room!" comes a crowing cry.

A sleek, raven haired rabbit emerges in view, shoving a spectacularly humongous and spotted teapot out of the way to stare enraged at Artemis. She blinks a little at the rabbit, thinking incredulously that the Cheshire Cat had been right when telling her the Robin Hare was nearby. She hadn't actually expected an actual rabbit, but with the sort of day it's been maybe she should have.

"There's plenty of room," she defends herself, absently gesturing to the great many of empty seats around the elongated table. She settles herself much more firmly into the rocking chair she had chosen for herself.

The Robin Hare sniffs greatly in her direction with an expression she could only assign as distaste. Discreetly, Artemis sniffs at the end of her blonde hair and rubs at the edges of her pinafore, wondering if she had trailed through anything pungent in the garden. With another great sniff, the Hare pushes a stack of rainbow tea cups perched precariously at the opposite end of the table.

A great crash startles Artemis and brings her attention to the mad-looking man staring at her in wide-eyed politeness. It might be the friendliest expression she's seen all day if not for the twitch in his eye.

"Have some wine," the man offers graciously, sweeping his luridly pattered top hat off to reveal a bush of wiry red hair.

Artemis glances at the table at the many half-drunk cups of tea and half-eaten macaroons. An odd assortment of what might be utensils catches her eye, but she sees no wine.

"I don't see any wine," she states, arms crossing over her pinafore.

"There isn't any," the Mad Hatter replies, green eyes still unblinking as he stares at her.

"Then it wasn't very civil of you to offer it," she informs him, lips pursed with anger. It's been an infuriating day and this is not helping her at all.

"It wasn't very civil of you to sit down without being invited," the Hatter remarks, blasé in his manner as he finally breaks eye contact to reach for a tangerine spiral tea cup.

Artemis sputters a bit and opens her mouth to talk, but the Robin Hare immediately places a gloved paw over his two emerging front teeth and silences her.

The Mad Hatter smiles courteously at the Robin Hare and then offers the cup to him. The Hare nods, ears flopping, and the Hatter moves as though to pour from the giant teapot. Unable to tip it over, he settles to remove the top and dunk the tea cup inside.

When Artemis laughs at his attempts, the Mad Hatter stares back up at her as though he had forgotten her presence.

"Your hair wants cutting," he says suddenly, taking in her appearance.

Artemis's laughter stops abruptly.

"You should learn not to make personal remarks. It's very rude."

Really, she doesn't even know why she's here. She doesn't even like tea.

She's about to say as much when there is a stirring in the middle of the table. It's a testament to the sort of day she's been having that she doesn't even scream when an overturned tea cup is flipped over to reveal a small mouse with a patch of pale fur on the top of his head. Sleepy, seaform eyes open to blink tiredly at Artemis.

When he speaks, his voice is tiny and squeaky and drolling as he asks her, "Why is a robin like a writing desk?"

There is a clatter of porcelain on china as both the Hare and the Hatter slam down their tea cups on saucers to stare at Artemis with unnerving concentration.

The piercing green of the Hatter's eyes makes her more than a little irritated and so she raises herself angrily from the table. She moves so quickly that her chair, already designed to do so, rocks back and forth shakily and hits the back of her stocking-clad legs

"Why is there so much tea?" she bursts out, moving about the table to be closer to her wayward hosts.

"Because it's tea time." The Mad Hatter answers in such a way that it seems as though even his freckles are laughing at her.

"But your watch only shows you what month and year it is," Artemis stresses, gesturing wildly at the tarnished watch hanging from a clip on his shirt. "Not the time."

"Because it's always tea time," the Mad Hatter tells her again, infuriatingly.

Artemis attempts to remember what tea time etiquette her sister taught her for such situations, though she suspects there is no chapter in her lesson book for such occasions. Even as she's about to smack the hat off the Mad Hatter, the Robin Hare springs from his seat to pull out a sweetheart chair beside her.

"Take some tea," he tells her warmly, shoving her onto the wooden seat.

She doesn't even have a chance to decline before he's pushing the chair back to its rightful place under the table, pinning her there.

"I've had nothing yet, so I can't take more," Artemis explains fruitlessly, as the Robin Hare springs away and walks back to his seat on his front paws.

"You mean you can't take less," the mouse on the table yawns. "It's very easy to take more than nothing."

"Nobody asked your opinion," she mutters darkly, giving the mouse a look of contempt he probably didn't deserve. Or maybe he did. She's only been here a few minutes.

"Who's making personal remarks now?" the Mad Hatter tells her gleefully, even as he dunks another tea cup into the teapot to serve to her.

She doesn't even bother mentioning to him that the cup was already fully when he plunged it into the teapot. Instead, she tiredly accepts the teacup and sniffs the vanilla scent before taking the tiniest of sips.

Previous experience with food and drink in this wonderland has made her wary, but there seems to be no effect on the Mad Hatter or the Robin Hare, so she assumes everything is acceptable. Well, no effect other than the underlying tones of hysteria.

The Mad Hatter eyes her diligently the entire time she takes her sip of tea and she blames it on the tea, this fluttering feeling against her ribs. She watches his emerald eyes blink twice and she allows herself a moment of quiet happiness when he offers her an almond macaroon.

She moves to accept it, a small smile on her face, but the Hatter smiles devilishly and snatches it back at the last second. He tosses it into his mouth and chews it noisily, crumbs spraying out at her in random intervals.

Before she can react, Robin Hare sighs loudly with extreme ennui.

"I'm tired of this. Kaldur Mouse, tell a story," he decrees petulantly, furry arms crossing over his fitted vest and obscuring the large embroidered R on his chest.

"Yes, a story," the Mad Hatter cries, spilling tea over his shoulder as he swings his arms out erratically. The Robin Hare doesn't even blink as the discarded tea drips down the length of his long ears. "Everything starting with the letter W."

"Why W?" Artemis asks, moving her tea cup away from the Hatter's grabbing hands.

"Why not?" The Hatter retorts, unblinking with impossibly round eyes as he fixes her once more with an unsettling stare.

She cannot form a sensible answer to such an absurd comment and figures there is not much point in commenting anyway, if previous conversations with the Hatter are anything to go off of.

Artemis is spared the need to respond when Kaldur Mouse rises slowly from his resting spot on a crimson saucer.

The Mad Hatter and Robin Hare watch with rapt attention, only the occasional slurp of tea breaking the silence as they wait for Kaldur Mouse's performance. Despite herself, Artemis can feel the excitement bubble inside her as she watches the Kaldur Mouse situate himself on a nearly toppling tower of sparkling doilies.

"Wagons and water and willows and wellness," he begins grandly in his sleepy voice. "You know you say things are much of a wellness, did you ever see such a thing as a drawing of a wellness?"

He ends with a bow and the Mad Hatter and Robin Hare both rise from their seats to clap wildly. Artemis, unsure if that was the end of the story and whether or not it was really something to applaud, claps her hands several times. Though her applause is nowhere near the level of enthusiasm as her hosts, the Mad Hatter grins at her in a way that shows just how tea-stained his teeth are. Despite the continuing applause, the noise does not deter the mouse at all from sliding down the doilies and settling himself back on the saucer. He curls up, long tail come around to rest over his pointed nose, and he looks up at Artemis even as he yawns.

"But, really now," he directs to her, eyes shutting as he nods off. "Did you ever see such a thing as a drawing of a wellness?"

Even as his eyes shut, two more pairs stare at her with their characteristic unblinking. Artemis finds herself uncharacteristically flustered and stares back and forth between the two of them. She lands on the Hatter and her mouth twists into something snappish.

"Really, now you ask me. I don't think-"

"Then you shouldn't talk," the Mad Hatter cuts her off impishly with a tip of his cup before he takes a self-satisfied gulp.

And with something snapping inside of her, Artemis pushes herself backwards from the table with such force that the tower of doilies falls on top of the Kaldur Mouse, who responds with not even so much as a nose twitch.

Grabbing a macaroon for the walk, she storms away from the table in the hopes of finding a companion without so many riddles and condescension. Even as she walks away, she can hear the constant clatter of their tea cups and the harried flutter of their conversation and she knows from the raised hair on the back of her neck that the Mad Hatter is watching her with every step she takes away from him.

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_Please review!_


	7. Genderbent AU

**Notes**: Ugh, this one was actually sort of difficult. I kept getting pronouns messed up. I've gone through this multiple times, but if I skipped over any mistakes, I apologize. Anyway, this one is AU in that they are genderbent, but otherwise keeps in line with the storyline from Season Two. This takes place a week before Artemis/Apollo leaves for the mission in "Depths."

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_Alternate universe where Apollo Crock has been asked by Nightwing to join Kaldur'ahma in a high-risk assignment. He prepares for his departure with his girlfriend, Wendy West, who supports Apollo's decision but also fears for his safety._

"Aren't you going on vacation next week?"

Wendy comes through the door, cool wind bursting into their apartment in Palo Alto before she shuts the door behind her, Brucely barking excitedly at her heels.

Apollo shuts his eyes for a moment at her words, counting to five and telling himself it's just a defense mechanism for her to make light of the situation.

"Yeah, I got my bathing suit packed up with the sunscreen," he retorts evenly, not even looking up from the textbooks scattered over the coffee table. The news plays on quietly in the background, G. Garden Godfrey blathering on about her usual nonsense.

"I don't understand why you're wasting your time doing your homework," Wendy sighs, shrugging off her jacket. Apollo doesn't even have to look up to know she left it tossed on the floor. He can hear the clatter of Brucely's leash being detached from her collar and almost instantly a cold, wet nose is being shoved into Apollo's waiting hand.

Wendy moves herself in front of the coffee table, hands on her hips. Apollo sighs again and pulls his eyes up Wendy's body until their gazes meet and Wendy winks at him spectacularly.

"You should be doing me instead," she informs him with her most winning smile.

"It has to be realistic," Apollo reminds her, pulling his eyes away from Wendy's thrust out chest to look back at his work.

"It will be totally realistic," Wendy swears, tugging at the end of her ponytail in sincerity. "I've never faked."

"Wendy," Apollo warns, though the corner of his lips pull into an insuppressible smile.

"Right," Wendy finally relents. She huffs out an annoyed breath and Apollo looks up just in time to see Wendy's ginger bangs flutter angrily over her forehead. She comes around the coffee table to flop down on the couch. Her legs nudge against Apollo's shoulders where he sits on the floor with his back to the couch. Brucely pulls away from Apollo's hand to jump into Wendy's lap where she immediately begins stroking the smooth fur on her head.

"At least you'll get out of finals," she says without much enthusiasm, pulling a face as she thinks of the dreaded tests.

"To be honest, that's the real reason I took Nightwing up on this assignment," Apollo deadpans.

"I so called that," Wendy swears, looking right into Brucely's eyes as if she had just won a bet between the two of them.

Apollo rolls his eyes and steps up from his spot on the floor, pushing Wendy's legs aside in the process as he stretches out his sore back muscles. Wendy kicks at him dispassionately before letting her legs extend on the couch.

They look at each other for just a moment too long and Apollo can start to feel the sick, threatening feeling in his stomach that he always feels when they talk about the assignment for too long. Wendy breaks eye contact to focus her attentions on the dog in her lap.

"I think I can play the bereaved girlfriend pretty well," Wendy says, voice suspiciously high and tight, like a string too tightly wound. "Think I'll be able to get out of my Vietnamese Lit final?"

She's goading Apollo, bringing everything back to their normal playing ground where everything is push and shove, all jokes and banter with eye rolls and snark. And Apollo lets her. It's so easy to fall back into their usual banter and they need easy right now.

"If I come back and find out you skipped out on your final," Apollo warns sternly, arms crossed over his chest, "I'm calling the deli and telling them you're allergic to their secret sauce and can no longer have their food."

His words bring about the desired effect and Wendy sits there on the couch, hand frozen on Brucely's head as she halts her movements. Brucely gives a little bark of discontent and then jumps out of her lap to snuggle on the discarded jacket still laying on the floor by the door.

"You wouldn't," Wendy breathes, green eyes wide with the threat held over her head.

Apollo snorts as if to say, "are you new here?" He gives another roll of his eyes and tries to smirk at Wendy, but there's something in her expression that catches him.

Wendy doesn't follow through with the joke. She always does. She always carries the joke too far, running away with it and driving everyone mad. Apollo had expected this to go over the same way, jokes about deli food and stupid homework and can't Apollo just help her one more time before leaving in a life-threatening mission?

But instead, Wendy is still staring at him with those impossible eyes and what started as a joke has turned into that bitter realness they keep trying to shed.

"Babe," Apollo whispers, feeling the word catch in his throat.

There's a single heartbeat that passes through the room before Wendy has thrown herself bodily into Apollo's chest. He nearly loses his stance, but he catches his breath and his balance, and he wraps his arms around her lean body, pressing her so hard to his chest that he pictures each freckle tattooing themselves to his skin so he never forgets a single impression.

They are silent for a long time before Wendy finally chokes something out against the warm wool of Apollo's sweater.

"I don't want you to go."

And there's the truth of it, under all their jokes and quips and avoidances. The love and the need and the fear, all tangled into this attachment they've formed; and the knowledge that even the depths of their connection won't stop them from joining the fight.

"I'll be back."

Apollo holds Wendy tighter, both hoping he's right.

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_Please review!_


	8. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time AU

**Notes**: Okay, so this one is based off the anime movie, "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time." The girl I wrote this story for is a fan of this movie and it's one of the most amazing movies I have ever seen. The whole movie is available on youtube. Just google "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" and the English dub should be like the fourth link from the top. It's sci-fi and romance and original concept and awesome dialogue and heartbreaking and beautiful soundtrack and it's just everything a movie should be. However, watching the movie is not necessary to understand this one-shot. I hope you all enjoy this!

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_Alternate universe in which Artemis, a regular girl struggling with homework and waking up for school in time, finds a mysterious device that allows her to leap through time. With her new found abilities, she can retake and ace pop quizzes, sleep in on early mornings, and relive the same perfect afternoon with her best friends, Wally and Dick._

Standing at the fork in the road like they do every afternoon, Artemis and Wally wave good bye as Dick leaves for the evening, baseball bat sticking out of the open zipper of his backpack. Dick gives them his usual customary backwards wave and then slips into the crowd as quickly and as easily as someone who was never there in the first place.

"Hey," Wally says, cutting across their momentary silence together to gesture at the empty space beside her, "where's your bike?"

For a moment, Artemis flashes back to an afternoon she has replaced, with her bike's broken brake line and an incoming train. She tosses her head minutely, shaking out that shattered timeline from her memory.

"Something happened to it," she answers vaguely, eyes focused on her nailpolish. It's chipped on her left hand, nails bitten to the quick. She painted them yesterday, but after reliving the same afternoon four times, they've started to look worn.

Wally gives a long suffering sigh, but climbs onto his bike and pats the seat behind him.

"Get on," he offers with a roll of his eyes, "I'll double ya."

"You'll take me home?" Artemis repeats, raising her eyebrows with momentary surprise. It's not much like Wally to offer, so she moves towards his bike before he can change his mind. "Awesome."

She swings her leg over his bike with slight difficulty; he's much taller than her and his bike is higher than she's used to. But once she settles on the bike, she places her hands on his rib cage and kicks at him idly to move.

Wally groans dramatically and she smiles to herself before kicking him again. He moves his leg out of the way, using his foot as a kickstand, and grabs at her hands. He adjusts her so that her arms wrap around him and she doesn't even think twice about it.

The pedaling is slow at first, but once he gathers momentum, they move briskly down the opposite road Dick had taken just moments before.

Thinking of Dick reminds Artemis of a nagging thought that's lingered in the back of her mind ever since Dick turned down that first year Barbara just a few hours ago.

"You honestly think Dick wasn't interested?" Artemis asks, resting her chin on Wally's shoulder, pointed in a way to make sure it digs in.

Sure enough, Wally twitches his shoulder in an attempt to make her move. Of course she doesn't, and he just sighs again.

"Probably," he says, finally answering her and turning the twitch into a proper shrug. "The guy usually means what he says."

Artemis takes a moment to reflect and lets herself move from Wally's shoulder. It was getting a bit too uncomfortable to her to talk like that, anyway. She tilts her head backwards and can feel bits of sunshine gathering in the crevices of her face and neck. Summer is just a few weeks away and she can feel it in the way the light slides down her cheek and the way it glistens on the river beside their path.

"If he gets a girlfriend, he'll treat her special, I bet," she decides, letting her hands tighten around Wally's middle, tethering herself to him as she lets herself dip backwards a little further. She can feel her ponytail off her back, swinging unhampered in the gathered wind of their bicycle ride.

"Yeah, that'd be him all right," Wally agrees. The bike weaves a little to each side as he steadies himself one-handed, his other hand falling to his stomach to tug Artemis back into a sitting position.

She frowns at the back of his head, eyes narrowed at the unruly red hair, but moves back to settle behind him once more. She does, however, bring one hand up to flick at one of his freckled ear. He doesn't respond, at least not in any way she can see from her position.

"Then we couldn't play baseball anymore," she figures. She slumps against him, head against his back and eyes staring out at the glistening river. Just at the edge of the water, she can see small clumps of children gathering with tiny toy boats.

"Well, you got a point," Wally answers, his voice deeper and resonating through his whole chest. The vibrations against her ear muffle the sounds of the people around them. "Playing catch doesn't exactly count as baseball."

"It's just, I don't know," she starts off, frustrated. She tightens her arms around him and takes a deep breath of the cotton shirt just beside her mouth. She can feel Wally shiver, but she ignores it. "I somehow always thought the three of us would always be together. Me telling you off for being late, you'd ride me for not being able to catch the ball, Dick laughing at us both."

She sighs and it's nothing like the put upon sighs Wally's always giving her. It's smaller and quieter and lost somewhere on the planes of Wally's back. She can see his hair toss a little in the evening sun, glinting gold and copper in the red strands. It's not easy to see from her position, but she can tell from his movements that he's flickering his eyes back at her a few times.

"Artemis," he starts, voice quiet in way she's never heard before, "what do you say, wanna go out?"

There is one final, peaceful moment before his words set in and then everything shatters around Artemis. The slow realization hits her like a train and she hears herself tell him to stop.

"Stop. Stop for a second."

He complies and their bike ride slows to a stop. The leg Artemis had kicked minutes ago stretches out again to hold them up and she wishes she could go back to pushing and kicking and being friends.

"What was that?" she asks him accusatorily. She thinks she should unwrap her arms around him, but she just pulls away, fingers trailing over his stomach until she's just holding on to his waist.

"Uh."

"Why did you say that?" she demands, voice slightly pitched and eyes wild as she stares at his heavily blushing face.

To his credit, he looks sheepish and brings one hand to scratch at the back of his neck. "Oh, I-"

She cuts him off, "Where's that coming from suddenly?" She says it like it's a disease, something gross and unfettered and infecting her.

"You were wondering what it'd be like if Dick got a girlfriend," he explains. He turns in his seat to look more directly at her. He twists and she can feel him move under the palms of her hands. She rips them away as though on fire and wrings them in her lap.

"I mean," he continues with a slight chuckle that even she can tell is a cover. "I'm not ugly, am I?"

She can't say she's ever really thought of it, just passing thoughts when she can hear girls giggling in the courtyard at school or a spare image bursting in the back of her mind when she sees him in class, leaning back in his seat and profile lit from the window beside him. Never anything real or anything substantial or anything to ever really consider.

"You serious?" she says, eyes level with his and glaring at him as if daring him to tell her it's all a lie.

He shatters that particular hope when he stares right back at her, green eyes unblinking and honest. "Dead."

There's another long pause between them and Artemis can feel something shift in the air as Wally turns around and begins pedaling again.

"Wait, hang on!" she cries, hating herself for a moment for sounding so startled. She clears her throat and when she talks again, it's with all her usual authority and command. "Wait a minute, will ya?"

"What is it this time?" he complains, though he does stop the bike once more. "Can we just go?"

She's already off the back off his bike and running down the hill towards the river when she can hear Wally stutter behind her.

"Uh, Artemis?"

Those are the last words she hears before tumbling down into the lawn. She sees for a moment the green of the grass and the gold of the river before the world turns shockingly white.

When she opens her eyes again, she's back at the fork of the road and Dick is waving backwards at them. He doesn't see her sprawled out on the ground, one leg tucked beneath her and ponytail mussed up.

"Uh," comes Wally's teasing voice above her. It sounds nothing like the quiet voice she just heard. "What the hell are you doing down there?"

"Nothing at all," she answers, smile bright with relief.

"Hey, where's your bike?" Wally asks, looking around them both as she rights herself, brushing off the dust from her uniform. "Hop on," he tells her as he realizes her bike is nowhere in sight. "I'll double ya."

For a moment, Artemis is tempted to say no. But the thought of walking home is much more of a struggle and so she shrugs off her misgivings and accepts the seat he offers her. When he pulls her arms to grip around his middle, she finds herself refusing to move and instead keeps them cautiously at his waist.

Wally gives her a look over his shoulder, but ignores it, and she breathes a little easier as he begins pedaling them away from the fork in the road.

"That loser Dick beat me to it," Wally eventually tells her as they pass the children with their boats at the river.

"It's not as though he decided to go through with it," she reminds him. She's confused that he's now expressing annoyance at Barbara's affection towards Dick. Hadn't he just told her he liked her? She doesn't think much of it, aside from the pull in her lower stomach.

"That's what he says now," Wally says and she can practically hear the roll of his eyes. She lets herself smile a little because this is what she's used to, this is what she wants. "But I bet if he got a girlfriend he'd always pick her over us."

"You can't be sure about that," she points out. She taps her fingers absently at his sides, but stops when she feels his shiver under her touch.

"Aw man, without Dick we'd only be able to toss the ball around," Wally groans, pushing into the bike handle enough to make the ride stutter beneath them.

"Why don't you give the poor guy some credit and deal with it if and when Dick starts seeing a girl?" she snaps, suddenly annoyed with him.

Something in her tone placates him and he gives a defeated sigh. "Well, there's not much we can do if it happens. Anyway, how about you go out with me?"

Her heart stops in her throat and she makes a sputtering noise until he stops the bike again.

"Like I said," Artemis shouts behind her back as she runs down the hill. "why are we talking about this?"

FLASH.

"That's what he says now," Wally intones as he stops his feet from pedaling and lets them glide for a few feet, "but I bet if he got a girlfriend he'd always pick her over us."

"Hey," Artemis interrupts, voice sharp and high as she diverts the subject, "did I ever tell you what a total jerk my older sister is?"

"Uh," Wally says with surprise and annoyance, "I was talking about Dick in case you didn't notice."

"Forget him," she orders forcefully as she digs her fingers deep in his side. He flinches a little, but she ignores it as she continues vigorously. "Let's talk about my sister."

Wally, in turn, ignores her and carries on with his line of thought with a bite to his words. "So, anyway, if Dick finds a girlfriend-"

"Let me tell you about my sister!"

"Do you want to go out with me?!"

FLASH.

Dick walks away from them, waving backwards and disappearing into the crowd. Wally looks around at Artemis who stares unseeingly at the place she last saw Dick before he was swallowed into the mass of people around him.

"Artemis," Wally offers when he fails to find her bike, "I'll take you home."

Artemis turns to stare at his bike, looking at his hands on the handlebars and his collarbone just barely jutting out through the unbuttoned top of his uniform. She turns away before she can look him in the eye and starts walking in the opposite direction of the river.

"No," she tells him finally. "no thanks."

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_Please review!_


	9. Auto Shop AU

**Notes**: I let my boyfriend read this one-shot, totally forgetting that he has a moped. So now I have to make a public statement that not all mopeds are lame.

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_Alternate universe in which Artemis is part of an all-woman auto shop with her friends and one day a dork with a moped shows up._

She's half under a practically steaming Lincoln towncar when she hears Zatanna's clear voice cut through the general hubbub of the garage.

"Artemis!" Zee cries, "Artemis! Get your cute tush out here right now!"

Curious and anxious to get out from under the car, she slides herself out and stands up, wiping her greasy hands on the rag she pulls from her back pocket.

"What is going on, Za- What the hell."

She stops dead in her tracks, right in the middle of her sentence as she comes towards Zatanna.

There, before her, stands an out-dated moped that's clearly seen better days. It's not old enough to be vintage and it's not suped up enough to be interesting. It's just a moped and she's about ready to have it banned from the garage.

"Huh," Zatanna comments, eyeing Artemis's expression with a bit of disappointment. "Less inflammatory than I expected."

Artemis is so aghast at the moped that she doesn't even notice at first the owner shifting his weight from foot to foot beside it.

"Uh," he starts, glancing between the two girls and gesturing towards Zatanna, "I was just telling Zee here that I need some work done on my baby."

"Your moped," Artemis corrects. It's a shame he's got such horrible taste in vehicles. He's actually pretty cute with his messy red hair and jutting jaw line.

"Yeah," he nods, not catching her intonation. "I don't trust my baby with just anyone."

There is actually a little shot of pain coursing through her when he refers to it as his baby. Zatanna stands there, giggling and waving Raquel over from her spot on the other side of the garage. The two gather quietly and watch Artemis with twin, amused expressions.

"I'm Wally, I'm a friend of Conner's," he continues, referring to the manager on duty's boyfriend, "and he recommended this place to me."

"With a straight face?" Artemis can't stop herself from asking. She knows Conner. She can't imagine he would have allowed a moped in their midst.

Raquel and Zatanna cannot contain their laughter on this one and quite honestly, Artemis doubts they're even really trying to.

Wally looks around between the three of them, confusion dawning on his freckled face.

"Is this a joke?" he asks cautiously, one hand coming up behind his head to scratch the back of his neck. "Did I miss a joke?" He looks utterly dejected as he drops his hand back to his side. "Aw, man. I love jokes.

The fact that she resists saying, "is that because you are one?" is a testament to how badly she really needs to pay her rent this month.

"Not a joke," Artemis smoothes over. She directs Wally's attention away and waves Zatanna and Raquel off behind her back, eager for their laughter to let up. She needs the commission money and she's pretty sure Dinah is staring out from her office in the back with eagle eyes. "We just don't, uh, get a lot of mopeds."

"Oh," Wally nods knowingly, glancing around the garage with newfound appreciation. "So you're a Sons of Anarchy kind of girl?"

Artemis shakes her head a little and gestures over to her own bike out in the parking lot. It gleams spectacularly in the afternoon sun, almost as though it knows the competition it's up against.

"I ride a Harley," she explains, "if that's what you mean."

"Hot," he responds with absolute sincerity.

He looks at her earnestly and she's not quite sure how to respond. Especially because she knows Zatanna and Raquel are still watching and ready to laugh, Dinah's waiting to reprimand her for being rude to a customer, and the moped is still there, staring at her with its dopey headlights.

"Right," she finally draws out, smiling hesitantly at the redhead. She edges around him and hates herself for the sudden shock she feels down her arm when her sleeve accidentally brushes past him. "Well, I'll take a look at your baby and give you an estimate tomorrow. Sound good?"

"Sounds great, beautiful."

Zatanna laughs off in the distance and Artemis considers throwing bolts in her general direction.

Instead, she turns to face Wally more directly and smiles at him, hoping that there are no obvious smudges of grease on her face. She points over towards Megan's office, the door covered in posters from old sitcoms and outdated movie stares.

"Just head over to Megan's office to finish some paperwork," she directs him.

Wally nods brightly and flashes her a smile that nearly makes her take a step back from its surprising brilliance. Really, who has white teeth like that?

She turns her attentions to his moped, a closer examination than her precursory glance from before. A few minutes go by and she's still looking over the moped's various afflictions when Wally's voice comes from the office.

"See ya, beautiful!" he cries out.

"Bye," Artemis responds in turn, glancing up to give him a half-wave.

She double takes as she notices the sly grin growing on Wally's face.

"I was talking to my baby," he informs her, eyes lighting up as their catch her embarrassed gaze.

Then he has the audacity to wink and toss her his key to the moped. She catches it just barely, feeling the warm metal in her dirty palm. Then he pretty much saunters out of the garage, leaving a stunned Artemis in his wake and Zatanna and Raquel holding their sides in laughter. Even Barbara, quiet Barbara, emerges from her work on a Chevy cavalier to give Artemis an amused and sympathetic look.

Moments later, Megan pokes her head out of her office, biting her lip and looking apologetic.

"Conner's on the phone," she tells Artemis in explanation. "He says he wants to apologize on behalf of his silly friend."

"Silly?" Artemis raises an eyebrow.

"Well," Megan relents, "he said something else. I substituted his word for 'silly.'" She blushes at the memory of what Conner said, but continues on apologetically. "Anyway, he's sorry. He didn't think Wally would actually show up."

Artemis looks down at the key in her hand and realizes Wally's wrapped a piece of paper around the teeth. She unrolls it to uncover his name and number scrawled out in messy handwriting. It's lame and cliché and she thinks she's still blushing, but she smiles to herself anyway.

"Artemis?"

Megan's voice calls her back and when she looks back up, she's hidden her smile away with nonchalance. She puts on a show of sighing heavily but shrugs regardless.

"Tell him it's fine," she waves off, pocketed scrap of paper discretely.

"It's fine?" Megan repeats in slight surprise.

"It's fine," Artemis answers, feeling a tug on the corners of her lips.

"I give it a month 'til they're screwing," Zatanna calls out with absolute resolve.

In the next few moments, Dinah calls out from her office not to throw oil rags at each other, but Zatanna seems less than upset. She laughs and flips Artemis off arbitrarily before skipping off back to the station wagon she's been tuning up.

Artemis picks up the tossed rag and heads over to the moped, unable to completely whip the grin off her face.

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_Please review!_


	10. Wicked AU

**Notes**: This one is based off the musical Wicked, specifically the song "As Long As You're Mine." Knowledge about the musical is helpful, though not necessary. I would also like to add, for those who are big fans of this musical, I have not seen it in years. So if any of my details are off, I apologize!

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_Alternate universe in which Artemis is an outcast from Oz as a result of her powerful magic and political disagreements with the land's most powerful wizard. Labeled as "wicked," she finds herself ostracized from everyone who has loved her: her best friend M'gann, the Good Witch, her sister Jade, the Wicked Witch, and Wally, the love of her life engaged to her best friend. _

The meager light filtering through the barred window is suddenly disturbed by the flutter of wings just outside. The limestone walls do not allow much noise to penetrate, but through the window pane, the cry of flying monkeys can be heard thin and screeching. Artemis stares warily at Wally, wondering if the sounds will scare him. He holds her gaze steadily, and though she smiles at his unspoken promise of understanding, she can't help but stay on guard for the inevitable moment of when he will no longer accept the person she feels she has become.

The prison walls offer no sanctity of warmth, but she feels lit from within at these shared moments between them, the first time they are alone together since Shiz University, a shared period in their past that feels lifetimes ago.

She wants to ask him if he means what he just said, if he does truly love her, but she fears that he may take back that single sentence and crush the rising hope within her. Instead she remains staring hungrily at him, taking in every freckle and laugh line just barely emerging on his handsome face. Silently, she pleads with him to kiss her too fiercely and hold her too tight. Despite the desperation of her desires, she knows she needs some sort of contact between them to help her believe that he's truly with her.

Instead, she smiles at him, mind casting around for the right words to say. She knows, perhaps better than anyone, how silence can set him on edge. She wonders if that's why he loved M'gann in the first place, with her constant chatter and conversation.

"I don't think, even in my wildest dreams, I could have guessed that you'd be here," she gestures around at the dank prison they've both been thrown into. "With me. Wanting me," she adds shyly, twisting her hands into the dirty and tattered edges of her dress.

Wally grins and it's as though the entire room has lit up from within. He takes her hands in his, pulling her grip away from the deep green fabric, and pressing kisses to her knuckles.

And in that single moment, in that single act of love and kindness, Artemis knows she's lost all resistance, has crossed some invisible borderline. She knows at instance that, even if the night ends too quickly or if she never sees him again after this night, that she will make every last moment last.

"Call me brainless, I know you used to," he teases gently, evoking memories of their days at the academy, "but maybe I'm starting to get a little smarter. I think you've got me seeing through different eyes."

His expression grows dim for a moment, and she knows he's thinking of Dr. Wolf, lost among the flying monkeys and no longer able to talk. She knows he's thinking of the Great and Powerful Lex and how that ideal of power fell as Lex threw him in prison. She knows he's thinking of Jade, once sweet and nice and vapid, now alone and loveless and wicked in the Land of the East.

"You were right," he tells her, his grip tightening on her hands intensely. "Oz is not right. Animals are losing their rights and there needs to be a regime change. I wish I could have seen this sooner, I could have gone with you and helped your cause. Instead, I stayed with M'gann."

"M'gann?" Artemis questions, not fully understanding.

"Megan goes by M'gann now, in honor of Dr. Wolf," he tells her, a ghost of a smile flashing over his face. "He never did learn how to say her name correctly."

Artemis almost wants to laugh at M'gann's cheerful and frantic attempt to make things right. But even as she opens her mouth to comment, Wally squeezes her hands once before releasing them, his hands coming up to cup her face.

"I feel like I've fallen under your spell, Artemis," he breathes, his thumb coming up to brush over the swell of her lower lip. He grins at her through the intimacy of their moment and she wants to roll her eyes at his joke.

"Zatanna taught me all the right magic, then," she teases, in awe of how he can joke even in such dire moments. She almost wants to remind him of the severity of their situation, but before she can gesture to the bars in the entranceway or the sparseness of their cell, Wally pulls her to him in a tight embrace.

"For every moment as long as you're mine," he promises, "I want to hold you and make up for all the time we've lost."

Seconds pass by and Artemis holds her body stiff and unmoving under Wally's hold. Then suddenly, she gives in to the moment, held as fiercely as she had desired. She hugs him tightly, arms wrapped around his wiry frame and feeling his heartbeat next to her breast.

"People might say there's no future for us," Wally whispers, words muffled against her skin as he presses into the small space in the nook of her neck.

"I don't care," she whispers back fiercely, gripping at the fabric of his shirt, one hand desperately caught up in his hair.

"I think as long as we have each other, we can be exactly who we want to be. We'll shine brighter this way. We can make a difference," Wally promises.

It's a pipe dream, Artemis knows this. Even if he loves her, even if she is stronger with his support, she knows there is no promised future for them.

But he pulls away to look at her and the green in his eyes is as perfect as she has ever known. The moonlight is weak through the barred window, but its silver light shines nonetheless on Wally, highlighting the red in his hair until it appears copper and bright and perfect.

"As long as you're mine," she promises echoing back his words in an affirmation of her love, in a silent promise to protect him as much as her magic allows.

And then he kisses her. He pulls her to him and she feels the moment build like the start of a storm, the swell of a crescendo, the end of a spell. He kisses her with all the love she has ever known in this manner and she kisses back with equal fervor.

Even if there is no promised future for them, she knows she loves this man. She loves him no matter what lies spread through Oz about her power or how her need to bring justice may tear them apart. She loves him if he stays with her to the bitter end and she loves him if he returns to M'gann, his betrothed and her best friend. She loves him as he is hers, as he has always, on some level, been hers.

The knowledge that she loves him and that she belongs to him in a way M'gann could never leaves a shudder through her body.

"What is it?" Wally asks, his voice cracked and deep with concern. His hands clutch at her hair, eyes peering into her as though to divine her thoughts.

"It's just," Artemis starts, her own voice growing stronger and more resilient, "for the first time, I feel wicked."

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_Please review!_


	11. Hospital AU

**Notes**: This is actually inspired by personal experiences. Without spoiling, I once had someone do for me what Wally does. It was one of the sweetest gestures. Anyway, thank you for reading!

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_Alternate universe in which Artemis is in the hospital and bored out of her mind until a stranger appears in the doorway to visit her roommate._

There are 300 tiles on the ceiling above her. Which means there are approximately 56,100 perforated dots in the entire room. She hasn't counted each individual one, but if the boredom persists, then that will be her next time killer.

With a heavy sigh, Artemis adjusts herself on the pillows propped up behind her and tries to avoid moving her infected leg at all. Her attempts are in vain and a shot of pain through her extremity causes her to slump down on the pillows, the weight of her back pushing down on the cheap stuffing and a huff of air rushing past her arms. The hospital wouldn't let her bring in her own pillows and she doesn't think she'll ever quite forgive them for that.

Several more mind numbing minutes pass and Artemis vaguely entertains the idea of throwing tissues at her young roommate until she wakes up, just to have someone to talk to. Even as her hand outstretches to the scratchy tissues on the bedside table, she shakes her head and instead resigns herself to count each perforation in the ceiling.

She only gets as high as twenty-seven when there is a sudden commotion at the door. A blur of yellow smears against the window beside her bed momentarily obscures her vision of the nurses' station and then the blur stops on a dime at the doorway.

The yellow blur is actually a waffle-knit sweater on the lankiest boy Artemis has ever seen. He's a little goofy looking with tufts of red hair sticking up in the back and a smattering of freckles over his long noise, but his smile is warm and he's at least more interesting than the perforations in the ceiling. He's a streak of color against the whiteness of the hospital room and he's the most exciting thing she's seen in days.

"Hey Perdita!" he greets excitedly, one hand behind his back and the other waving cheerfully at the patch of blonde hair half-hidden in the bed beside Artemis.

"She's asleep," Artemis supplies when the little girl, Perdita, doesn't even stir.

"Oh," the boy pulls a disappointed face before flashing her an apologetic smile. "Sorry to bother you then."

She waves off his apology which just encourages his smile to widen. Artemis finds herself discretely pulling at her knotted hair. It's a losing battle to try to look good in a hospital bed, but she smoothes her hair down regardless. She's at least glad her bandaged leg is concealed by the blanket.

The boy pulls his hand from behind his back and reveals a fluffy banana-yellow bunny stuffed animal, complete with a purple polka dot bowtie around its neck.

"Would it be okay if I left this here for her?" he asks, holding the bunny out in question.

"Not my property," Artemis shrugs nonchalantly. "Do whatever you want."

He flashes her another smile and she feels a momentary surge of heat in her cheeks that she wishes she could blame on her antibiotics.

"Cool, okay," the boy nods and moves closer to the bed. He pauses at Perdita's bedside table and seems to internally debate with himself for a few moments, experimentally placing the bunny in various spots before finally settling on putting the bunny right on the edge of the table, just beside the vase of flowers the little girl's uncle had brought a few hours before.

The boy smiles at the bunny and gives Perdita a tiny wave before turning on his heel and walking towards the door. He pauses awkwardly near the foot of Artemis's bed and his verdant eyes flicker in her direction.

"It's cute," Artemis offers, jerking her thumb over at the stuffed animal, its glittering button eyes cheerful in the pale room.

"Yeah," the boy smiles, obviously pleased with himself. "Perdita loves bunnies. She says they have magical healing powers," he adds with a slight chuckle.

"Sure," Artemis indulges, not one to take a little girl's hope away.

"You don't sound convinced," the boy accuses mockingly. He crosses his arms over his chest, the waffle-knit stretched over his lean arms.

Artemis licks her dry lips and gives another indifferent shrug.

"I didn't say anything," she says innocently, looking up at him through her eyelashes.

The boy doesn't say anything either, just gives her a look and a gesture for her to stay in her bed. With an IV in her hand, there's not too far she could go anyway, but she leans back on the pillows expectantly. The boy hurries out of the room as quickly as he arrived and this time the minutes pass with a sense of heightened excitement rather than the drawn out boredom of earlier.

The clock on the white walls ticks out several minutes and just when she thinks he's not coming back, he arrives with a face splitting smile. He presents to her with a flourish a piece of paper with a crayon scribble.

"It's a bunny," he tells her proudly as she tentatively accepts the drawing. "I spent a long time on it."

It's literally a scribble of brown crayon in the crudest form of a bunny she could imagine, but she can see the floppy ears and the button nose and even a bunch of squiggly lines to indicate a fluffy tail.

"I can tell," she says, nodding seriously. "He has a smiley face."

"He is a nice bunny, and he also has magical healing powers. And he is brown."

His pride is nearly tangible in the air between them and he bounces on the balls of his feet as he smiles at her.

"Oh, so that's what that color is," she responds jokingly with a healthy amount of sarcasm mixed up in her sotto voice.

But the boy's expression fades a little and he rocks back onto his heels for a moment. He gives her a tight smile and a small wave.

"Okay," he says as he walks towards the door. "Well. Good night."

His red sneakers squeak against the pallid tiles as he takes his first step away from her.

"Wait," she blurts out, not wanting to lose his color from the room. "I'm sorry. It's the drugs or something."

She gestures vaguely at the IV in her hand and the machines buzzing quietly around her. The boy stares at her from the doorway warily and she offers him a smile as she holds his drawing a little closer to her chest.

His eyes linger a moment on the swell of her smile and she can see something light up in the grass green of his eyes even as he catches her gaze and grins broadly.

"Pesky antibiotics, I'm sure," he agrees jokingly as he edges back into the room. He places his hands on the metal bars at the foot of her bed and she can see freckles dancing across his knuckles. "I'm Wally."

"Artemis."

Maybe he's right, she thinks. Maybe bunnies really do have magical powers. Either way, she's pretty sure she's going to keep this drawing forever.

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_Please review!_


	12. Pizza Parlor AU

**Notes**: This is very much inspired by my own experiences at Pizza Hut. The jukebox is boss and taking home free pizza is worth its weight in gold. I honestly thought about this drabble for days, writing it in my head. I hope it's very authentic and I hope you enjoy it.

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_Alternate universe in which Wally is a waiter at his favorite pizza shop in town. Working alongside his friends, he finds a special talent for annoying the cook._

There are three things Wally loves more than anything about his job as a waiter at Justice Pizza. One, if any pizzas are made incorrectly, Wally gets to eat them for free. Two, the jukebox in the dining room hasn't been updated since 2003 so he gets to listen to songs he hasn't heard in forever and forgot how much he loved jamming to them. Three, he gets to make fun of the part-time cook for the hairnet she hates but still has to wear.

"You know, if there's hair in the pizza, I don't make good tips," Wally tells Artemis, tugging gently at a strand of shimmering blonde hair that's somehow escaped her hairnet trap.

"What a tragedy," she rolls her eyes. But she shoves at the offending strand until it's secure and out of her way before scowling greatly at him. "Don't you have a table to harass?"

She shoves more harshly at the hand sanitizer dispenser than necessary and rubs it into her skin with a clear vendetta.

"I don't harass," Wally insists, one hand pressed against his polyester uniform in the most earnest fashion. "I make pleasant conversation and make their night out even more enjoyable."

"Right," Artemis snorts, systematically individual pepperoni slices on the raw pizza before her. "I'm just impressed they can look at your face and still want to eat."

"It's only because they haven't seen him eat that they can still stomach their food," Dick chimes in as he exits the walk-in refrigerator behind the cooking station with a cart full of bottled beverages.

Wally turns to give him a look, but his best friend has already alluded him to restock the front of the restaurant, his cackling trailing behind him dutifully.

Artemis snorts again and it shouldn't be quite as adorable as it is, but Wally has long since overlooked that flipflop of his heart and instead focuses on the cause of her laughter.

"See," he gestures at her form, perfect posture and calculated movements even as she places her newly finished pizza in the oven, "it's this attitude here that kept you from being a server with me."

"Yes," she nods with absolute complicity, "and it was your inability to not eat the ingredients while cooking that kept you from being a cook."

Unable to find any flaw in her logic, he just grins and takes advantage of her momentary distraction at the oven to toss some chilled pineapple into his mouth. He watches idly as she moves near the cut table. Technically, Conner is in charge of the pizzas once they come out of the oven, cutting them into eight slices and putting them into boxes or onto plates. But Wally's noticed that whenever he waits for his pizza personally, Artemis is always there to take care of them herself.

"Anyway," she says, coming back to his side with his pizza directing in the center of the serving tray. "Here is the pizza you wanted me to make while you hovered over my shoulder."

She hands it to him unceremoniously, a thrust in his general direction that he accepts with an easy grin. When she looks at him again, there's a hint of humor in her steely eyes.

"Why can't you wait until it's placed in the server's station like Zee and Megan?" she asks, referencing the other servers as she pulls out another mound of dough from the refrigerated stack above her station.

"I'm the fastest server here," he explains slowly, as if talking to a child. It riles her up and he loves it. "If I want to live up to my title, I need to deliver my food in a timely fashion."

"Whatever," she ticks, tongue smacking against the roof of her mouth disdainfully. She looks down at the pizza he's still holding out between the two of them. "One large, thin and crispy veggie lovers with extra artichoke."

"Okie-dokie, artichokie!" he announces loudly, grinning toothily at her even as she groans loudly.

She makes a move like she wants to shove at him, but thinks better of it and instead kneads the dough with unnecessary viciousness.

Beside them, Conner makes himself known with his boom of a laugh. Wally turns his grin onto his friend and is greeted with an amused shake of the gentle giant's head.

"I'll never forgive you for laughing," Artemis informs Conner haughtily, and she shakes her head in a way that would have made her hair toss impressively if not for the hated hairnet.

And even though Conner is the one who laughs, it's Wally who is treated with the most level of all Artemis's glares. Of course, it has the opposite effect on him as he grins wider and feels his heart soar up into the general region of his throat.

This momentary happy feeling is soon shattered as he attempts to moonwalk out of the kitchen with his pizza, forgetting that his non-slip shoes do not allow for such impromptu dancing.

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_Please review!_


	13. Danny Phantom AU

**Notes**: Once I came up with the idea for this one, it all sorta fell into place. I just really, really love this one.

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_Alternate Universe in which Wally West was just fourteen when his family built a very strange machine designed to view a world unseen. When it didn't quite work, Barry just quit, but then Wally took a look inside of it. There was a great big flash, everything was changed, his molecules got all rearranged. When he first woke up, he realized he had snow white hair and glowing green eyes. He could walk through walls, disappear, and fly; he was much more unique than the other guys. It was then that Wally knew what he had to do, he had to stop all the ghosts from coming through. He's here to fight for me and you, and he's gonna catch them all because he's Wally Phantom._

"I am the Brain Ghost! Fear me!"

Panic screams are heard scattered through Justice Park as Wally leads Dick and Artemis away from the general public. The three run toward the edges of the forest on the outskirts of the park, each glancing back with various of degrees of annoyance at the Brain Ghost.

"I don't even understand," Dick pants as he hastens his run. "He's mostly machine. How can a ghost be a machine?"

"This is not the time for nuances, Dick!" Artemis snaps, eyes rolling even as she dodges another blast of ectoplasm the Brain Ghost shoots at them.

"I just want to know how he always manages to find me!" Wally groans, dashing behind the thick trunk of an oak tree. Unseen by Artemis, Dick, or anyone else in the vicinity, there is a flash of white light.

"I'm going ghost!"

"You know, hiding behind a tree kind of loses its purpose if you shout out what you're doing," Artemis quips at Wally as he darts out from behind the tree and up into the sky.

Wally doesn't spare the moment to look back at her, but he makes a face all the same as he distracts the Brain Ghost from zapping his friends.

"But does he haunt brains?" Dick continues, hands on his knees as he catches his breath. "Because, admittedly, that would be scary." He pulls out his PDA, quick to record the ghost's behavior for future reference.

Artemis feigns deafness and drops to her knees, pulling her knapsack in front of her. She shoves past Wally's binders of scribbled notes, half-finished homework, and a physics magazine until her black nails scrape against the unmistakable chrome finish of the Allen Thermos.

Annoyed by Artemis's ignorance, Dick continues idly. "Or does he just horde them? Is he the Brain Ghost because he's a brain? And no one has answered my question about ghost machinery!"

Above them, Wally hits the Brain Ghost near the cerebellum. Momentarily disoriented, the ghost backs off long enough for Wally to turn around and face Dick.

He opens his mouth to respond in some way to Dick's ridiculousness when he gets thrashed by an unexpected hit from the recovering Brain Ghost.

"Fear me!" Brain Ghost screams out petulantly.

He blasts in the direction of Artemis and Dick, which Artemis tucks and rolls away from, thermos and bag hugged close to her chest. Dick however gets the brunt of the blast and is shot backwards into the thrush a hundred feet away.

"Oh, for Pete's sake," Artemis sighs under her breath as Dick makes a pitiful moan in the background.

She rolls forward, James Bond-style, until she's hunched on her combat boots and pointing the Allen Thermos right at the Brain Ghost. She uncaps it quickly, careful to keep her hands out of the way of the sudden green ray extending from the thermos that pulls at the Brain Ghost. Yelling out defiantly, the Brain Ghost shoots out blasts at random, evoking chaos in its final moments. Wally flies over and easily deflects each blast before it can seek havoc on the surroundings.

"This is not the end!" echoes out of the thermos as the Brain Ghost disappears out of the sight and the green light fades away.

Artemis slams the lid back on the now-cool thermos, rising to her feet and sighing as the momentarily excitement dies away and quiet settles around the park.

There's a infinitesimal swoosh beside her and a sudden chill causes her to shiver. She looks up and finds exactly what she expected, a pair of unnaturally bright green eyes and a look of gratitude in-between faint freckles across pale cheeks.

"Thanks," Wally says, nodding at the thermos. He nudges her lightly, the warmth of his smile overshadowing the shock of coldness radiating over her skin from his touch.

"Well, you know," she says, shrugging it off as she drops the thermos back in his knapsack, "some of us can't fly."

She smirks at him, equal parts proud and teasing and he accepts the knapsack as she hands it over to him. His hands pass over hers unnecessarily and she finds comfort in his chilling touch.

"IRIS!"

The exuberant cry of Wally's uncle startles them both, causing Artemis to jump back and Wally to float several feet higher in the air.

"Over here! The scanners are picking up traces of ectoplasm."

Never before has Wally been so happy for his uncle's ability to be heard before seen, and he closes his hand around Artemis's wrist.

"Quick!" he hisses at her, pulling her along to the thrush around them. She follows in suit, jumping over a bush and, with a bright flash, finds herself falling against Wally's now warm and human body.

"Now Bart has to believe us!" Barry announces proudly, rambling forward into the edges of the forest, ghost hunting machinery buzzing in his hand.

"But, dear," Iris begins, appearing behind him in seconds, looking at the machinery with curiosity and disappointment through her goggles. "The scanners can't find anything now."

"Have I ever let that stop me?" he continues boisterously, mood unhampered in the slightest.

Unable to do anything but agree with that statement, Iris follows her husband out of the forest, her own machinery held high above her head for any remaining trace of ghost presence.

The whirring of their machines falls away and their footsteps are soon no longer heard within the small sanctuary of the forest. Dick takes advantage of their absence to walk back to where his friends hide, arms crossed and expression sulking.

"Hey, thanks for the help, guys," he frowns sarcastically, plucking another leaf out of his hair. He approaches them, ready to ream them out when he stops short.

Wally lays flat on the ground with one hand wound up in Artemis's ponytail, the other resting on her lower back pulling her flush against his chest as they kiss awkwardly. She runs her own hand through his red hair as she deepens their kiss, completely oblivious to Dick's arrival.

"Oh-ho-ho!" he crows gleefully, eyebrows shooting up over his sunglasses in excitement. "What do we have here?"

His sudden exclaim causes the two to spring away, scrambling for purchase, and swearing, "Nothing!" "It's nothing!" "Just a distraction!" "My uncle and aunt and yeah. It's nothing."

Artemis is first to her feet, kicking at dirt clods with her boots and determinedly not looking at Wally. Wally grins punchdrunkenly at Dick, obvious to everyone within a fifty mile radius that it was not just the nothing he swore it to be.

"I call it, 'a fake-out, make-out,'" he announces with a pride reminiscent of his uncle's.

"Are you blushing?" Dick asks Artemis, grin widening with each passing second.

"Goths don't blush," she retorts snappily, blush deepening on her cheeks. "Whatever. Anyway, c'mon."

She grabs the knapsack from the ground, forgotten in all the excitement, and stomps off in the general direction of Allen Works. Even her ponytail trails behind her indignantly.

"We have to go release crazy back into the ghost zone," she calls out to her friends behind her.

Wally and Dick glance at each other, shrugging and moving forward after her.

"A fake-out, make-out?" Dick mutters under his breath, glancing slyly between Wally and Artemis.

"Like you're any smoother," Wally shoots back, ears red with embarrassment. "I'm just glad she wasn't wearing the Spector Deflector."

Dick nods fervently, still cackling as they make their way out of Justice Park.

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_Please review!_


	14. Seeing Eye Dog AU

**Notes**: Ehhhhhh I like the concept of this one, but I don't know if I like how it came out. Hopefully you all like it though!

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_Alternate Universe in which Artemis is recently blinded after her estranged father throws acid on her face. While coming to terms with her new lifestyle, Artemis prepares to start working with her new seeing eye dog._

She's still not used to this newfound darkness, black ebbing at every corner of her wasted vision. Experimentally, she opens her eyes wider, trying to wrench herself out of a monochromatic dream, but nothing changes. She allows herself a moment of grim humor to think it's possible that if she opened her eyes wide enough, the glass one might roll away, scaring all in its path.

Her moment of bleak distraction subsides as she hears the crack of the door and shuffled footsteps on the tiled floor of the office.

"Artemis?"

She hasn't yet developed stronger senses as a result of her lack of eyesight, so she turns around in what she thinks is the direction of the noise.

"Uh, over here," the voice corrects her. It's male and there's a slight crack in it that she might have once laughed at, had she met him before.

She turns again in her seat and the weird shuffling of his feet stops short. "Sorry to have kept you waiting," he apologizes.

"It's cool," she shrugs. "I've been taking in the great scenery."

He laughs a little uneasily, like he's not sure if he's supposed to laugh at her joke. He coughs in an offhand manner and when he speaks again, it's with a new vigor and excitement.

"Well, it's nice to meet you! My name's Wally and I'm here to introduce you to your new seeing eye dog."

Despite her knee-jerk annoyance to his overly peppy voice, Artemis sits up a little straighter in her seat. She turns her head minutely, trying to hear a wagging tail or a panting tongue.

"You look excited. Have you ever had a dog before?"

She listens to him walk across the room and hears the shuffle of paper. His excited tone is not a surprise to her, but she is surprised by how clearly she can picture his expression. She has no idea what this trainer looks like, but Artemis finds herself ready to bet any amount of money that he's grinning, eyes flicking between her and whatever sort of papers he's shuffling through. She wonders briefly what color his eyes are before she shrugs off the idea, telling herself it doesn't matter.

"No. I always wanted one," she admits. He hums understandingly a little to her right and something about it makes her press on. "But my sister had cats when I was younger and we can't have dogs in our apartment complex."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," he tells her earnestly. She has half a mind to roll her glass eye. How can this optimism and sincere behavior be real?

There's a small screech across the linoleum floor and Artemis can hear Wally sit down, presumably on the chair he just pulled over. She can't tell for sure, but she's pretty sure he's straddling the back of it. He just seems the type.

"For the longest time, my parents would only let me have a turtle," Wally laughs a little. "Less responsibility."

Artemis imagines the sheepish expression that his tone suggests and finds herself grinning a little. She pulls her ponytail over her shoulder and plays with the ends of it out of habit.

"I named him Velocity," Wally continues, "and he's actually the coolest pet I could ever imagine. You should see the way he eats grapes."

Something inside of Artemis twitches a little and suddenly she remembers that she's not just a regular girl talking to a boy. She's a blind girl talking to her seeing eye dog trainer.

"I'd love to see that," she responds, a little more frostily than Wally really deserves.

There's a moment of silence and Artemis doesn't really care much what he's doing. If he's biting the inside of his cheek or if he's pressing the palm of his hand to his forehead.

"Right," he finally says, drawing the word out. "I'm so sorry, Artemis."

She's heard that phrase so many times that she really doesn't care much if he means it or not. "Aren't they supposed to give you sensitivity training for this job?" she asks him icily, doing her best bitch-face and hoping the effect isn't spoiled by her glass eye.

"They are. I mean, they do. I mean, they did," he stammers along. She can hear him trip as he stands up from the chair. There's a slight rattle and she thinks he must have upset the chair as he stood, probably hastening to right it. The rattle stops with the resounding sound of metal legs settling on the floor. There's quiet for a moment before Wally sighs. "I've had the training."

"Whatever."

"Whatever, right," Wally agrees. There's a faint scratching noise and Artemis guesses he's scratching the back of his neck. He seems like the sort of awkward person who would do something so sheepish. He speaks again and his sincerity returns full force. "Well, I'm glad you're finally able to have your dog. Not the best of circumstances, but a seeing eye dog is still a really fun pet to have!"

"Yeah," Artemis responds, voice sarcastically bright and cheery. "All I needed to convince my mom to let me get a dog was a face full of acid from my dad. I got this cool new glass eye, too. I'm gonna be the envy of all my friends when I finally get to go back to school."

She regrets the words as soon as they're out of her mouth because, really, she should be over this self-pity. But before she can even take them back, Wally is cutting her off.

"Look," he starts, sheepish tones and awkward pauses gone. "Maybe that dark humor bit is a self-preservation thing or something, but if you don't stop, I'm not bringing the dog out. These dogs are great companions and I don't want you to take your hostilities out on them. Your dog just wants to say hello and be your friend."

Choosing to ignore the first part of his little speech, Artemis crosses her arms defensively. "Where is the dog, anyway?" The whole point to her being here is so she can get her dog and start assimilating to her new environment. At least, that's what her doctor keeps telling her. She doesn't even care anymore. She just wants to go home.

"No," Wally tells her. His voice is so final that she's willing to believe he shook his head for further emphasis. "You have to say one nice thing before I get the dog. Dogs can read people's emotions and you want this first impression to go well." He allows her a moment for his mandate to settle in before commanding her, "Now say something nice."

There's a short moment when Artemis legitimately wonders what her chances are of actually hitting him if she just starts swinging her fists wildly. Poor, she decides, and instead scowls darkly in his general direction. She's never liked being told what to do. And this isn't a recent development that evolved with the loss of her vision. It's a long standing pillar of her personality's biology.

But she also understands her desire to just go home. And she hasn't known Wally for more than ten minutes at the most, but she's pretty certain that he'll hold his ground.

"Fine," she agrees through gritted teeth. She sits there sulkily for a few moments, one leg crossed over the other, foot jiggling impatiently. "I'm sure this waiting room has more attractive fabric on the chairs than other waiting rooms."

"Sarcasm doesn't count," he reprimands her. "And no. The fabric is as hideous as you'd expect."

"Okay, fine. Um," she pauses, racking her brain for something positive amidst the rampage of angry and gloomy thoughts. "I guess, I no longer have to see litter on the ground. I always hated that."

"Nicer."

"This is bullshit," she swears, both frustrated with his stubbornness and impressed with his ability to stand his ground.

She doesn't know how much taller than her he stands, but she pictures him clear as day, standing in front of her with his arms crossed, expression pointed and jaw set. And she thinks maybe that's something she can be happy for at this moment.

It's easy to picture how her mom looks when Artemis can hear her cry at night. She can imagine the look of fury on Jade's face when Jade rages about how awful their father is. And she can definitely see the looks of pity her friends give her whenever they come by to visit. That's not the part of the blindness that she hates. She hates the unknown. She hates not knowing what the scenery is outside the window of the cab when the taxi driver takes her to a new part of town. She hates not knowing what her new dog will look like. She hates not knowing what color hair this trainer in front of her has.

But something about the way he talks to her makes her less afraid. She doesn't know if his nose is long or if his hair is curly or if he walks with a hunchback. But she can hear the smile in his voice and the expressions in his laugh. And for the first time when meeting a new person, she doesn't feel like she can't see who she's talking to. That sense of knowing makes all the darkness a little bit easier.

"Okay," she finally sighs. She bites at the inside of her cheek as she tries to find a way to word her thoughts. She falls short, her emotional dictionary a bit sparse at the moment, and tells him lamely, "I think you have a nice voice."

But maybe she conveys more than her meager words offer because it's quiet in the office for a long time. There's no possible way for him to understand what she means, but maybe he can understand her a little better in the same way that she can see him a little more clearly.

"That'll work," he finally says, his voice relenting and softer. Somehow, it's more sincere than all his optimism and excitement from earlier.

The door opens and shuts, and for a moment, Artemis thinks he's gone completely. And just as she's considering getting up and feeling her way around for the exit with her new cane, the door opens again. This time, Artemis can hear nails clipping against the tiles along with the shuffle of Wally's feet.

A smile starts to tug at the corners of her mouth and she adjusts herself on the chair to lean forward, one hand outstretched for the dog, _her_ dog, to sniff.

"Artemis," Wally says formally, "meet Brucely."

A wet nose nudges at her hand and she can immediately hear the swish of a tail wagging against the floor. The smile grows to a grin and she moves her hand to start scratching Brucely behind the ear. His hair feels short and smooth under her filed nails, and she really likes how one ear is pointed and the other is flopped over.

She rubs at the fur around his neck and runs her hand down his back. Her hand makes contact with Wally's near the base of Brucely's tail and she immediately snaps her hand back as though electrocuted. She assumes Wally must have done the same because he starts to laugh. Artemis surprises herself by joining in on the laughter and resumes petting her dog.

"He likes you already," Wally tells her. The warmth of his words washes over her and she pretends it's only because of Brucely's calming affect that she lets herself be so touched by his words.

"Sorry about earlier," she mutters, momentarily grateful for her built-in excuse not to look him in the eye.

"Don't worry about it," Wally waves off. "This is the important part."

He gives Brucely a hearty pat and pulls away, letting the tips of his fingers brush over the back of her hand. Artemis looks up in his direction in surprise, before turning back to the dog and smiling to herself.

"Okay," Wally begins, "so here's the basics for how to take care of Brucely. Take care of him and he'll take care of you."

Hand still happily petting Brucely's smooth coat, Artemis leans back and listens and feels for the first time in a long time like she's not stuck in the darkness.

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_Please review!_


	15. Wedding Invitation AU

**Notes**: I'm guessing a lot of people reading won't like this, but I really love it.

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_Alternate universe in which, years later, Artemis and Wally never end up together, though they remain friends who fight crime._

The day is just like any other day.

Artemis wakes up seven minutes after she's supposed to be out of bed and ends up having to throw the covers off of her body as she springs from the mattress. Seven minutes doesn't seem like much, but it's enough for her to have to skip making her bed and straightening up her tiny bedroom before leaving for work. She hates coming home after a long day to a messy apartment.

She brushes her hair with her usual brevity, the knots at the end stubborn as ever and she ends up throwing it all into a messy bun that uses too many hair ties to gather it all up. Her makeup looks a little sloppy in the mirror and she should probably tweeze her eyebrows at some point this upcoming weekend, but she woke up seven minutes late and she really needs to head out the door.

The train ride is as long as it ever is, stopping at various intervals to pick up the usual assortment of passengers: art students with bright hair and tired eyes, lonely businessmen with briefcases that are more for show than function, career women in pencil skirts skimming over high-definition screens on their tablets. Artemis falls into the category of people who sit staring blankly out the window because they forgot some sort of reading material for the ride.

She walks the last few blocks to her school building, the sound of her boot heels hitting against the concrete is lost in the masses of people wading around her as they all congregate to their desired locations. Three people accidentally bump into her arm, not knowing there's a bruise from her battle against The Brain a few nights ago. She's been indoctrinated into the Justice League for a year now and she's still battling the same villains. It's enough to make her bitterly think she should ask Batman to install zetatubes between her apartment and work.

Her day at the school passes without much excitement. Most of it is spent at her desk, reading over the papers her students have written. Normally there is discussion and debate amongst her students, adults immigrated to Gotham from other countries in search of better jobs and healthcare, but they are home for the upcoming holidays and she is grading their end-of-term papers testing their new knowledge of the English language. She feels a flicker of pride at the firm grasp of understanding they all seem to demonstrate of the language and its tenses, though nearly every paper displays at least one oddly translated phrase.

Her phone rings twice during the day. She doesn't answer either call. The first is from Nightwing and she just doesn't have enough patience to listen to his pleas for her to join him in Bludhaven. She doesn't want to leave her city, but the city isn't promising her enough today to make a very convincing argument to Dick. So she ignores his calls, mentally telling herself she has to deal with him eventually.

Zatanna calls later in the afternoon as she's ready to leave work. Artemis tells herself it's too soon to answer calls and everything can be dealt with tomorrow. It'll be easier then.

The blue route is the most direct train route back to her apartment and she always gets off at the thirteenth stop.

The winter wind is a little stronger in the evening, the sun set behind the backdrop of the city skyline. She tugs her army jacket a little tighter around herself and wonders if it's too late to ask her mother for a new coat for Christmas. Even as she enters her apartment building, she figures it probably is too late and thinks she'll just wait until the after-holiday sale.

Mrs. Waternoose on the third floor stops her on the staircase and they talk for a few minutes, chattering idly about the weather and other such normal topics. Artemis finds herself agreeing to collect the older woman's mail while she's visiting family next week.

3D on the fourth floor never looks particularly inviting, but it's especially drab today as Artemis unlocks the door and lets herself in. She wonders idly if she should get a cat or a parakeet or even a pet rock. Something to greet her when she enters the tiny apartment. Almost immediately, she feels a pang of guilt as she looks at the plants M'gann got her at the apartment warming party several months ago, wilted and dying and pathetic looking. She thinks of watering them, but even as she moves to get her watering can, she's distracted by the aching pain in her shoulder.

Every year she forgets how much longer it takes injuries to heal in the winter. She debates if she should apply ice or a heat pack, wondering if heat will soothe or cause inflammation. The pain feels more like a pain in the muscle rather than the joint and she finds herself applying a heat wrap to her skin, her gray sweater pulled down over shoulder for better exposure.

The pain in her shoulder recedes as she moves to the kitchen to make her tea, water boiled in a kettle like she swore her to her mother she'd always do, none of that microwave nonsense. Then she steeps the leaves for three and a half minutes exactly, the timer on her cellphone beeping at the end of the countdown and signaling her to add her usual honey. Some days she skips the honey, prefers the tea bitter, but today is a day that invites any extra comforts it has to offer.

The taste is strong as it hits the tip of her tongue and she allows herself a moment of decadence as she sits at her kitchen table, the warmth of her tea swallowing down into her cold chest. Her hands wrap a little tighter around her mug, the handle cracked and the rim chipped right where her lips always press against the edge.

She thinks of the bills she has to pay and the faint reminder in the back of her head to call her mother at some point. Today is not the day for phone calls though. She's not up to the emotional strength needed to force herself through sensitive topics. Instead, she considers what she wants for dinner, if she wants to order in or find something in the back of the freezer that's worth heating up. She thinks there might be some chicken nuggets left over and she gives herself a tiny pinch in the leg as a reminder to start doing her grocery shopping like an adult.

The bottom of her mug appears sooner than expected and the remaining dregs of her tea stare up at her with their usual dejection. She gives a heavy sigh that no one else can hear in the emptiness of her apartment, and she rises from her chair to stare into the backs of her fridge and freezer.

Artemis finishes her day with mediocre dinner and reruns of Jade's favorite guilty pleasure soap opera on the television. She finishes the crossword puzzle she had forgotten to complete the day before and wraps the Christmas gift she bought for Lian over a month ago.

She goes about her evening like everything's normal and nothing has changed, doing anything to keep her mind off the invitation in her trashcan.

_You are cordially invited to the blessed union between Linda Park and Wally West._

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_Please review!_


	16. Arkham Asylum AU

**Notes**: Not gonna lie, I loved this concept. I just wish I had done a better job with it.

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_Alternate universe where Artemis is a nurse at Arkham Asylum where Wally is a patient who believes he is a superhero whose powers include superspeed._

"I don't understand," Artemis finally says, staring down at the glowing letter of recommendation in her hands. One finger traces silently over Amanda Waller's signature at the bottom of the thick paper, careful to make sure this tangible evidence is real.

"You're a good nurse, Artemis," Waller explains again, her tone deep and voice patient. "I want you to succeed."

"Then why do I have to leave?" Artemis asks, not even bothering to hide the desperation in her voice. She looks up from the letter with a dreadful expression, her lower lip caught between her teeth as she stares at her superior across from her.

Waller gives her a hardened expression, like the angles in her dark face have been edged with a knife and the look she gives Artemis is razor-sharp.

"It's been brought to my attention the special treatment you give one of the patients."

A sudden freeze falls over the office and Artemis can no longer feel her extremities. The letter sits foreign and unrecognizable in her lap as her hands flutter to her sides without purpose.

Waller continues on, though her sharp eyes don't miss a single change in Artemis's posture. "Dr. Strange has told me a number of interesting stories, and I cross-examined the patient myself and found significant overlap in the stories."

"Wally," Artemis breathes, somehow finding his name in her choked throat.

"Yes," Waller nods, her expression grave. Her mouth softens minutely, and when she speaks again, it's not un-sympathetic. "Like I said, Artemis, you're a good nurse. I just feel it's better for everyone if you continue your career elsewhere."

Artemis says nothing, just stares blankly at the letter still resting in her lap.

"This is a gray area, Artemis," Waller continues. "You're not the first person in this sort of predicament."

Amanda Waller looks down at her, somehow ten feet tall even as she sits behind a desk. With a pointed expression that makes Artemis's blood run cold, Waller reminds her, "We don't need another incident like Nurse Quinzel."

The wards balled up in her chest that rise to defend herself against such a comparison get lost in her throat and instead she speaks in a small voice she barely recognizes as her own.

"He said the light up shoes would make him run faster," she says in defeat. She thinks back to the way his entire face had lit up with joy when he unwrapped his gift. She remembers how proud he had been to put them on, how he had run across the courtyard and back to her with a beaming expression. "I just wanted to make him feel better."

"He's unwell, Artemis," Waller says, gently but with a note of finality.

Artemis wants to argue, but she can't. She has known Wally, known his disease, and though she has loved him for it, she can't deny it's not there. She's seen it in him on his bad days and even on his best days; he is not well and she cannot save him.

"Can I at least say good bye?" she asks, her final grasp at the happiest ending she can picture for the two of them.

Waller doesn't answer her except to shake her head sadly. No more words pass between them and Artemis recognizes the dismissal for what it is. Her silent departure for an impeccable letter of recommendation, a quiet escape for them to both avoid messy emotional and legal disputes.

And as she cleans out her desk and prepares to leave indefinitely, she imagines a world not unlike the one Wally has crafted himself. A world with black and white, good and evil, where justice prevails and wars are ended. A world where they can run away together in light up sneakers that can break the sound barrier, leaving behind nothing but a streak of light in their wake.

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_Please review!_


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